Activist and poet, Ipsa Shatkashi, will be awarded the kritya Yuva Puraskar 2026 at the World Book Fair on January 15, 2026. Awarded by the kritya, a cultural organisation, the award is a Young Achiever’s Award.
About the poet
Most poets write what they see, think, and sometimes also what they feel.
On the very first page of Ipsa Shatakshi’s poetry collection are these words:
“Dedicated to companions who walk the path of struggle and become each other’s courage.”
Ipsa writes what she herself is living through, what she is grappling with—there is no distance here between the poet and her persona. Her struggle is the struggle of her life.
When she says,
“ऐसी रोशनी का हम क्या करें
जो रोशन करे सिर्फ़ एक घर को।
हमें तो चाहिए वे दीये,
जो रोशन करें मानवता को।”
“What use is that one light
That illuminates only one house?
We need lamps
That light up (all of) humanity.”
In Ipsa’s poetry, the language is simple, but runs deep. The concerns of the poet are not limited—she writes for all. The style is not framed in sharp or aggressive tones, yet there is an inner intensity that strikes deeply.
She does not merely pray for the well-being of love and then fall silent; she actively strives for its safe keeping. She does not wish to lose herself in the dreams of her beloved; rather, she wants to live those dreams. When she resists, she does so standing upright—fearless, yet with graceful and dignified words.
The truth is that Ipsa’s poetry is not purely personal, nor does it arise only from her own pain. Instead, it speaks for all those oppressed and crushed sections of society whose very act of standing up counts as standing on the side of humanity. This is Ipsa’s love; this is her freedom—one that reveals the beauty of love through the path of poetry.
She sees and understands too:
कि कैसे उनके हिस्से का
चाँद, सूरज, तारे, फूल, ख़ुशबू—
सब कुछ मुट्ठियों में मसला जा रहा है।
और उन्हें भी अब
बंद करनी है अपनी मुट्ठियाँ,
हवा में तान कर
लेना है प्रण
कि अपने संघर्ष से छीन लेना है
अपनी धरती, अपना सूरज,
फूलों का खिलना,
पंछियों की चहचहाहट…
और आज़ाद कर लेना है—
“इश्क़ की सुंदरता”
How what was meant for her—
The moon, the sun, the stars, the flowers, the fragrance—
Are being crushed in closed fists,
And (how) now she too
Must clench her fists
And raise them up in the air,
And take a vow
To reclaim through struggle
Her earth, her sun,
The blooming of flowers,
The chirping of birds…
And free her love.
“The Beauty of Love”
Another reason to embrace this collection is that it is often assumed that women’s poetry lacks struggle, consciousness, or social rebellion—that their world revolves only around themselves.
Ipsa does write of the lived truth, but her truth walks the path of radical change, of revolution.
In October 2025, Sabrangindia published a letter written by Ipsa to her jailed husband, Rupesh Kumar Singh. This may be read here.
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